20 September 2013

A Non-electric Kitchen


My kitchen is full of appliances (I use them all, they don't just sit there) and many of them are electric. I love my mixer and wouldn't be without it by choice. And I like the kettle for it's speed. The food processor is used almost every day for slicing or dicing or grating or chopping something. And my coffee machine - say no more!

But it's also full of non-electric alternatives that do just as good a job running on womanpower.

Things like my grater. It may be old fashioned but during the no-power challenge it's getting a workout for grating and zesting.

And the whisk. Not just for use as a sifter or for smoothing sauces. It whisks up batters and cake mixes beautifully, again running on womanpower.

Knives have been sharpened for slicing and dicing and are doing a beautiful job.

Wooden spoons are doing wonders beating cake batters. I did ask Mum to share her egg beater, it's older than me, but she won't part with it, even for a Cheapskates challenge. Mum still uses it to beat egg whites and custards and small cake batters.

When we go camping we don't have power and I don't miss it. At all. I happily chop and grate and mix by hand with the very tools I've mentioned above. But when I'm in the kitchen at home it never occurs to me to use them - I have appliances I can use at the flick of a switch.

Until now. The no power challenge is making me very resourceful. I've learned to bring in the camping box and get out those woman powered appliances. I've learned that using them is just as easy as using the powered appliances. I've learned that time-wise they only take a few minutes longer and are much faster to wash up.

I've learned that even without powered appliances I can still make bread, bake a cake, bottle some jam and cook delicious meals for the family. I'm still trying to get the coffee right, but that will come!

Are you like me and use powered appliances because they're there? What non-powered appliances do you use? Why do you like them? Could you survive forever without powered kitchen appliances?




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1 comment:

  1. Hi Cath, Thank you for such an interesting and informative and helpful website! The No Power Challenge sounds great and I am certainly joining in! I do use my PC a lot throughout the day, but figure that if I top up the battery in my laptop in the 3 hours of power,then i can go online even when it's "after hours"! I also have a few power kitchen appliances,but THREEof my very favorite things and well used in my kitchen,do not require power at all and will be used during our challenge! One is my Presso coffee machine.It is as 'green' as they come. All that is required is boiling water and and the ground coffee and the rest is a little pressure to pushe that water through the grounds for a perfect espresso every time! The second item is my V-Slicer(bought online).It grates, slices,dices and julliennes as quick as a wink and I use it a lot! Last but not least is my ShuttleChef. This is a thermos pot,with an inside steel cooking pot with lid, where I cook my meal in and then after only a ten minutes or so on the simmer,I put the inner pot inside the thermos pot and it keeps cooking for up to 8 hours! I can start a meal at 8am and have it done and ready in there by dinner time without any more power being used other than to start it off and brown the meat etc and then simmer for 10-15 mins and the rest of the cooking is done inside the thermospot! It's been used at home,on camping trips(it locks the outer pot so it can't spill-very good when you're travelling!), taking soup for winter picnics,is great with this as well and when I plan a dinner party, I always use it to cook ahead. I am steeling myself for the NO Power Challenge as it will test me quite a bit, but it won't be so difficult with my three trusted kitchen aids!

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